The Unexpected Wish
by Tenukii
Summary: NOVA sets off to fill a most complicated wish: that Zero Two be healed and find love. A planet of tesseracts help with the first half of the wish, but Zero Two causes strife wherever he goes. How can NOVA grant the wish that he find love? Zero Two x NOVA.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: The tesseracts in this story are not related to the Marvel universe tesseract. My race of tesseracts was actually inspired by Madeleine L'Engle's writings, and Waverly has been my OC for nearly twenty years! However, they have similar abilities to those of the Marvel tesseract and look a lot like it, only bigger.

* * *

Most would call the mechanical comet NOVA single-minded. Even now he was rocketing through space on another wish-granting mission, and if anyone on the planets NOVA passed had glanced up, she or he would have assumed NOVA was thinking of nothing except the task at hand. He was a machine, after all, wasn't he? He was a machine, and he had been given the right kind of energy by a living being, and that living being had made a request. So off NOVA went to grant the small Dark Matter's wish, because he was a machine, and he couldn't possibly have wishes of his own.

And as a matter of fact, he didn't. . . at least no wishes floating on the surface of his vast brain. NOVA's almost perpetually drowsy right eye looked with vague pleasure on the planets he passed, but that was all.

_It's been a long time since I've been to this side of the solar system,_ he thought as he passed Pop Star and headed out into the side of the double system opposite to his home. Rock Star appeared before his single functioning eye. _Getting closer now._ NOVA's bifurcated mouth curved in an even larger benign smile than normal.

The truth was, NOVA had long ago stopped venturing into the deeper alcoves of his own mind. It could be dangerous- one could get lost in there!- but it had started hurting, too. Now, the comet was indeed single-minded, by choice. If he wasn't thinking of how to grant a wish, he wasn't thinking about much of anything, except maybe how lovely the stars looked and how sweet their voices were when they sang to him. That accounted for his vacant gaze and peaceful smile, and if organics thought him simple, he didn't bother to disillusion them.

Soon Shiver Star came into sight, and NOVA slowed his rapid pace. He passed the frozen planet and its moon, then he drifted into the belt of dwarf objects at the edge of the double system.

_This is where Dark Star was. . . that little Dark Matter's home._ NOVA opened his right eye wide and began to scan the area for any sign of his quarry. _He wanted me to bring Zero Two back to life. . . and to let him feel love._ The second was a tall order; of all the information NOVA possessed on the creature once known as Zero, the most interesting was the fact that he supposedly could feel no positive emotions.

The first half wasn't so bad though. NOVA knew that Zero had survived death once, against all odds, so chances were good Zero Two had survived as well.

NOVA saw no remnants of Dark Star itself; the Dark Matter comprising it must have either fled or been destroyed. Still, the area was peppered with debris: mini-planets and other particles. NOVA adjusted his telescoping eye to zoom in on the rocky material. He even opened his damaged left eye, but he still could see nothing with it. A thread of sadness worked its way through NOVA's circuits before he could stop it.

But then his good eye caught an unnaturally white speck amid all the darker rock. _Aha!_ NOVA edged closer, keeping his eye focused on his find. As he drifted over, he saw that he had indeed located Zero Two.

Despite his vast knowledge, NOVA had never actually seen the strange eyeball creature before. He had always heard Zero Two described as grotesque, a monster, but NOVA couldn't see it in the bloody, beaten form floating before him. Zero Two's bulbous white body was stained with blood, most of it having leaked from his closed eye. He wore a large bandage across the crown of his "head," and it too was soaked with blood turned a crusty dark brown. A partially shattered halo circled his crown, and a long, limp tail- green with spikes like a cactus- hung from his lower body. Saddest of all to NOVA were Zero Two's wings. They must have once been magnificent, full of white and crimson feathers. Now only a handful of red plumes remained, and the white had been pulled off in clumps.

Zero Two did look dead. Yet NOVA's sensors told the comet that Zero Two lived, deep within the broken white body strangely adapted to survive in space. He was unconscious, but that was probably a blessing. If he felt anything, it would be only pain.

NOVA regarded the still body as he considered his options. As powerful as he was, he didn't have the resources to heal such grievous physical injuries; after all, he still hadn't managed to repair his own body, damaged long before Zero Two's. _I'll have to take him somewhere else to be healed, _the comet decided. _Somewhere he isn't known._ NOVA ran through a database he kept of all known inhabited planets, but he only got to the Ks before stopping.

_Ah, Kythica!_ The comet's mysterious smile grew again. _They will care well for him. It's far away, though. . . . I will have to carry him._ NOVA gazed down at Zero Two, pondering the best way to accomplish this, then the comet opened his large mouth. It led in to the chamber that housed his nucleus, as did the hole in his forehead- but it would be a lot easier for NOVA to take Zero Two in his mouth than to try to steer the eyeball creature down through the comet's gaping wound.

NOVA inched forward, mouth gaping, until Zero Two was surrounded by the cavernous opening. Then NOVA gingerly closed his mouth once more and activated his internal gravity. Turning his sensors inward, he assured himself that the eyeball's body was resting comfortably on the floor, outside the series of columns that guarded the comet's heart.

_It could be dangerous to carry him there. The last time. . . ._ That thought only led to the inner pain NOVA sought to avoid, so he reminded himself that Zero Two was nowhere near consciousness. The comet then turned outward, away from the center of the solar system, and fired his rockets. Shiver Star and the rest of the system shot away behind him as he hurried toward the far distant Kythica.

It was a journey of many, many days, but NOVA did not count them. The time involved in granting a wish did not matter to him; he had nowhere else to be, anyway. Zero Two slept on within the comet's nucleus. When Kythica- a small sphere of blue and dusty brown- did finally come into sight, NOVA slowed himself, then went into orbit about the planet.

_I'll have to find a safe place to leave him,_ NOVA thought as he scanned the planet for inhabited areas. _One where they're sure to find him- there are so few settlements here!_ Eventually he selected a location near a village in the planet's northern hemisphere. There was water nearby and even some plants, despite Kythica being mostly rocky.

"All right, Zero Two," NOVA murmured. "Now, to put you down safely. . . ." There was no way NOVA himself could descend to the planet's surface; he was far too large. Instead he would have to use a tendril of energy- and he hadn't summoned that much physical energy since before his accident.

_There's no other way,_ NOVA told himself, and that was the end of it. He closed his right eye as well as his left and concentrated on gathering and solidifying enough energy to reach Kythica's surface. Opening his mouth once more, NOVA scooped Zero Two up as if in a giant and invisible hand. The energy tendril surrounded the feathered eyeball, shielding him from burning up in Kythica's atmosphere as NOVA lowered him to the planet. It didn't hurt NOVA at all, although he did feel a bit overextended as he neared the surface; it was like stretching out an arm to grasp something just out of reach.

Finally, though, NOVA was able to lay Zero Two down on a rocky riverbank, in exactly the location NOVA had chosen. The comet smiled in contentment, satisfied that the first part of the Dark Matter's wish would be fulfilled.

_Now to wake you up. . . ._ He extended a smaller tendril- a finger- and very gently touched Zero Two's fractured halo. As NOVA shared a bit of his own energy with the eyeball, the halo glowed then began to reform. When NOVA had replenished enough of Zero Two's energy for him to wake up, the comet retracted his tendril, withdrawing completely from the planet and back into his mechanical body.

_What now? Should I go?_ NOVA wondered. _They will not need my help here. . . ._ Yet, he couldn't bring himself to leave Zero Two there alone. _After he is healed, he will be lost. They might not be willing to send him back to his system, and he would wander in space forever. . . alone._ And then of course, there was the other half of the Dark Matter's wish. As magnificent as Kythica's inhabitants were, NOVA doubted even they could teach Zero Two to love.

_I'll orbit here for a while,_ NOVA finally decided. _They know me, so they won't mind. And I can watch Zero Two from here. . . in case he needs me._ The mechanical comet closed his eye once more as he let Kythica's gravity carry him in his orbit around the planet. NOVA might have kept the eye open to observe the beauty of this portion of the universe, but he was rather tired after the long journey. He powered down some of his systems to recharge the energy he had expended, but his mind remained fully functional. He tried to clear it, to rest in thoughtlessness as he was wont to do, but one image insisted on remaining: Zero Two's limp, battered body floating in the void where Dark Star had been.


	2. Chapter 2

Zero Two hurt all over.

That was all his dizzy brain was capable of thinking at first. Then another thought wormed in: he had to pull himself together, or Kirby and Ribbon would kill him.

Zero Two struggled to open his large eye, which hurt every bit as much as the rest of him. It felt as if someone were peeling back his eyelid with a razor as he hauled it upward, but then it was open. . . and Kirby was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the insipid little fairy. . . and neither was Dark Star.

Instead of the comfortable crimson and black world Zero Two had fashioned for himself, he saw a land that was dazzlingly bright. The feathered eyeball groaned and squinted against the light; it made his eye hurt all the more. Finally his pupil contracted enough for him to make out shapes in the light: namely rocks and some few scraggly trees.

_I'm somewhere else._ Zero Two tried to push himself up on one wing to see better, but it hurt too much. _I didn't fly here. . . . Maybe I drifted. Maybe I've been drifting in space for a long time. _As it sank in that he had been unconscious for who knew how long, Zero Two felt a bit frightened. What had happened to him in all those. . . days? Centuries? And where were his Dark Matter?

Closing his eye to concentrate, Zero Two felt for them. His halo was whole (miraculous, though Zero Two couldn't even feel happy about that), and he used it to send out a pulse of energy, a call to his minions. But he felt nothing in return.

_They've been destroyed,_ he thought. _Or else I'm too far away to feel them, if that's even possible. Or else they've all broken free of me._ In any case, he was even more alone than he had been before.

_I have to get up._ There seemed to be a disconnect between Zero Two's brain and his aching body, for nothing happened. His eye and halo worked, but maybe the rest of him was broken. Maybe he would lie there paralyzed until he died. There was certainly no dark energy to feed on there, no pain but his own.

But as always, he was being pessimistic. After resting for a time- he had no idea how long- a little of the pain subsided: not much, but enough for him to try once more to move. This time, he did manage to lift himself on one wing and look around. He was lying on a riverbank, one covered in small brown rocks and grit. (Zero Two soon processed that some of his pain came from those rocks digging into his tender flank.) The bank dropped suddenly in a tiny cliff a couple feet away, and below that, the river ran sluggishly. It was really more of a stream, but it looked very blue as it reflected the bright sky.

Zero Two shifted and turned himself to the left a little, hoping to see something besides more rocks and water he couldn't reach. A bright light again dazzled his eye, and he squinted against what he thought was sunlight. After a moment, though, he realized the light's source was far too low to be the sun. He forced himself to open his eyelid farther.

A few feet away from him, hovering just above the rocky ground, was the most exquisite object Zero Two had ever seen. It looked to be made of crystal, very similar in fact to the crystal shards Zero Two had sent his Dark Matter to collect. This crystal was much larger though and was shaped into a cube. It both reflected and refracted light; while the outer surface itself glistened with iridescence, Zero Two could see spectra cast on the ground as the crystal cube acted as a prism.

As bright as it was, Zero Two tried to peer into its center. There he could just make out a smaller cube floating inside the larger. This little cube glowed with a soft, pink light of its own. And then- it moved. The inner cube spun gently, and the surface of the larger cube rippled.

The thing was alive, and it was beautiful. All Zero Two could compare it to was an angel- not the shoddy imitation he was, but an actual angel. Here he was, his circular white body- far from the emblem of purity he had always wanted to be- bloody and scabby, his grotesque tail limp and paralyzed, and his single staring eye nearly blinded by the vision of _real _purity. The crystal thing before him had no flesh, no blood, nothing to make a mess or be torn to pieces.

And Zero Two hated it. He was flooded with bitter jealousy towards the silent being who was so effortlessly perfect, and fresh, gory tears spilled from his single eye. As he stared at the thing, two green pinpoints appeared on the cube's face that was turned towards him. They grew into shimmering ovals of light.

_Is it preparing for an attack?_ Zero Two wondered. _About to shoot some energy beam from those green spots?_

"Hey, are you hurt?"

The voice was feminine, and it came from the crystal cube. The two green spots blinked at him, winking out then reappearing. Zero Two felt rather stupid when he realized that the spots were the creature's eyes. Still, he supposed it didn't matter whether the thing shot him or not. He hurt too much to care. Instead of answering, Zero Two lowered himself back to the ground and shut his eye against the cube's invasive brightness.

"_Hey!_" it- she?- bellowed. When Zero Two half-opened his eye in irritation, he found the green orbs mere inches from his face.

"I said- oh, forget it. Obviously, you _are_ hurt." The cube made a sighing noise. "How did you get here? Can you talk, or are you one of those feral eyeballs?"

Zero Two's hatred of the thing grew a little. Feral eyeball indeed!

"I do not know how I got here," he mumbled through the small mouth hidden under the silky down that covered his body. "I woke up here." He closed his eye again and pressed his face to the rocky ground, wishing she would go away. "Leave me alone. . . just let me die. . . ."

"Hm." The cube was silent a moment, then she persisted, "I doubt you're going to die of _those_ wounds. Might starve to death though if you're just going to lie around like a lump. So are you just being emo, or do you really not want our help?"

Zero Two hauled his eye open again and regarded the creature, who was now hovering in the open air just past where the bank dropped off down to the river. He wondered what her "help" would entail. . . and to whom "our" referred.

"Are there more of you?" he asked.

"Oh. . . yes." She paused, her outer cube beginning to rotate slowly in one direction as her inner cube turned in the other. Disconcertingly, her green eyes stayed still even as the faces of the cube shifted beneath them. "I'm a tesseract. There's a small settlement of us nearby. I'm no good at healing, but one of the others is trained in it. She can help you. . . if you want help."

Zero Two, of course, knew what a tesseract was: a four-dimensional cube with the ability to transfer matter spatially between any two points in the universe. He had even heard legends of sentient tesseracts from his Dark Matter, but he had never expected to meet one- or that it would be like _this_.

"Well?" the grumpy tesseract said. "I have other things to do today."

Zero Two thought about it. "Help" was a word he knew, but not a word he had ever used. Yet here was a stranger, a member of one of the most powerful species in existence, asking if he wanted her aid. And besides, Zero Two was tired of hurting.

"Yes, I would like your help," he said. Then he added another word he had never used before. "Please."

"Okay," the tesseract responded immediately and without much emotion. "I'll have to carry you to our settlement." He heard add in a mutter to herself, "The long way. You'd go to pieces if I tessered you."

The tesseract began to grow, expanding to over twice her initial size. Zero Two watched her, not especially comfortable with the idea of her getting bigger until he realized the reason for it. She stopped spinning and drifted forward, towards him. Zero Two's eye widened as her lower edge came closer then passed right through him; she only stopped moving when Zero Two was completely engulfed in the bottom portion of her outer cube. When she floated upward, Zero Two found the bottom face of her cube to be solid, even though it had passed through the rocky ground beneath him a moment before. Now, it lifted him, and he looked down to see that he was lying inside the tesseract and hovering several inches off the ground.

It would have been frightening, except that somehow, the inside of the tesseract was soothing. Any other being would have probably associated it with pleasant feelings, but for Zero Two, it was only. . . less painful than the outside world. He couldn't feel the tesseract's bottom face below him, even as it supported him, and that was certainly better than lying on the rocky riverbank. Also, her light was not so dazzling from within; it only shone through as a soft, misty glow here. Zero Two even felt warm for the first time in a long, long while.

Zero Two looked up at the tesseract's inner cube, rotating above him and glowing with the rose-colored light. He even thought he could _smell_ roses, despite his limited olfactory capabilities. The inner cube was mesmerizing, and Zero Two put up a wing towards it, wanting to touch it.

"_Hey!_" the tesseract snapped. Her voice shattered the calm world that cradled him. "Keep your grubby wings to yourself! That's _private_!" Zero Two let the wing drop and glared up at the lovely cube with the full force of his bitterness. He turned his eye away from the forbidden object and looked out through the filmy iridescence of the tesseract's sides. The world he saw passing by outside was much like the riverbank: rocky and barren with only a few scrubby plants. He wondered what it would be like to be stranded there forever in that horrible hardness and brightness. Worst of all, he could feel no dark energy at all- even from the irritable tesseract.

_If I can't get away from here, I'll starve,_ he realized. For a moment, he regretted allowing the tesseract to carry him; her peaceful innards suddenly felt like a prison. But then, Zero Two hadn't had felt any energy at all before she came along, and he was certainly in no shape to leave the planet by himself. He really didn't have any choice but to take whatever help the tesseract was offering.


	3. Chapter 3

The tesseract settlement was surrounded by a wall of grey stone, as tall as Zero Two's wingspan was wide. Peering out through the tesseract's side, Zero Two saw her approach a heavy wooden door that nearly stretched to the top of the wall. A massive cabochon was set in the door's face, and it glowed with a pearly pale light when the tesseract drew near. Somehow, her ambient energy had activated the door, and it swung inward to let her pass.

Inside, Zero Two was surprised to see only a few squat, stone huts arranged in a rough circle instead of some elegant dwelling worthy of a tesseract. In fact, the only remotely impressive building was a square, domed structure in the center of the circle. It was larger than the others and had a roof of stone instead of thatch. There was no one else in sight, either, except for one small reddish tesseract passing from the central building to one of the others.

The smaller tesseract noticed Zero Two and his companion, and it darted over to them. When it came closer, two golden eyes became visible on its face. A matching light came from within it, but its outer cube was a deep crimson, preventing Zero Two from seeing inside it.

"Waverly! Who's this?" the new tesseract asked in the voice of a young male. "Did you find him on patrol?"

"He's hurt, Abdiel," Zero Two's tesseract said, "and that's all I know about him."

The little one- Abdiel- leaned closer until he was eye-to-eye with Zero Two through Waverly's side. "Hello! I'm Abdiel, Waverly's brother. What's your name?" Zero Two gave him what he hoped was a withering glare.

"Shoo." Waverly turned away from Abdiel and started for one of the buildings in the circle. "He's not much of a talker anyway."

The building Waverly had chosen also had a wooden door bearing a stone, but this one did not open. Instead, Waverly leaned forward and tapped on the door with one corner of her outer cube. This time, she seemed to be solid, and her corner made a satisfying thump on the door.

Another tesseract answered her knock, this one larger than Abdiel but smaller than Waverly had been before picking up Zero Two. It had large, purple eyes that widened upon seeing Zero Two.

"Oh, Waverly. . . here, bring him inside." As Zero Two might have guessed from the eyes, its voice was feminine. Waverly followed her though a small, plain room sparsely decorated, but Zero Two didn't see much of that, as Waverly carried him into a larger back room. The tesseract deposited him there on a pile of bedding on the floor. The depositing involved Waverly's lower face ceasing to be solid; Zero Two fell the several inches between it and the floor, and he groaned as he landed on his bruised back.

"_Waverly!_" the other tesseract screeched. "How many times have I told you not to drop them?"

Waverly harrumphed and shrunk back to her normal size. "He'll live. Have fun with him; he's pretty whiny." Zero Two's wings bristled, and he glared at her. How unfair that someone like her was blessed with such exquisite beauty!

"I'll take care of him," the new tesseract promised as Waverly floated out of the room. Once Waverly was gone, the healer tesseract floated over to Zero Two instead.

"Hello, my name is Silvaria," she said. She began to arrange the bedding- soft and as white as Zero Two's feathers had once been- in more comfortable folds around him. Her light was much gentler than Waverly's, a soft lavender glowing from within a silvery green cube.

"I am Zero Two," he said. He followed her with his eye as she moved around him.

"How did you find your way to Kythica? Our planet," she added in response to his blank look.

"As I told the other one, I don't know." Zero Two let himself relax a little, although he felt a wave of bitter regret as he realized he was already getting blood on the clean bedding. "I was in a. . . fight and lost consciousness. When I awoke, I was lying on the ground. . . here."

"I see." Silvaria glimmered at him. "Where do you hurt?"

"Everywhere."

"Could. . . you be a little more specific?" When Zero Two didn't answer, Silvaria moved to float near his tail. "What about your tail? It seems to have been injured."

"I can't move it," he admitted, looking away instead of at the tesseract.

"Do you mind if I scan it?" Silvaria asked. He cut his eye to her suspiciously, and she explained, "I'll pass a corner through it, and I'll be able to see what's causing the paralysis. It might only be broken, but I can't know just by looking at the outside."

"If it is broken. . . will you be able to fix it?"

Her violet eyes seemed to smile at him gently. "Yes- very quickly in fact."

Zero Two hated the thought of something invasive as a "scan" (even though he wasn't quite sure how such a thing might work). But then he imagined spending the rest of his life with a deformed tail.

"All right, you may. . . scan it. But only my tail!" He didn't want her getting anywhere near the bandaged wound on his head.

Silvaria blinked in assent, then she shifted to move her upper left, front corner down the length of Zero Two's tail. He felt nothing, but he could see with his own eye that the tesseract's point was passing through the spikes and green flesh. She straightened up and turned to him, shimmering softly.

"It is broken in two places near the base, but they are small fractures. I know it's painful, but it's really not serious- you'll be able to move it once the fractures heal. I can also treat the abrasions."

"Mmn. You will do this now?"

"Well. . . ." Silvaria hedged. "I _would_ like to help with your other wounds, if you'll just tell me where else you hurt."

"My wings," Zero Two finally said. "You may scan those too. And my eye hurts- but I don't want you touching it!"

"Whatever you wish. Just a moment." Silvaria passed a corner through each of his wings, then she peered down into his eye while keeping a distance. "Can you see clearly?"

"Yes. It just. . . burns."

"I see some small scratches on your sclera. That probably is causing the burning- but if you can see well, I doubt there's any serious injury." Zero Two wondered how she could see the scratches even at a close distance, but then, he didn't understand how anything else about the tesseracts worked, either.

"Now, what about inside? Is there any pain in your midsection?" She waved a corner at the area below his eye.

"No!"

She was persistent if nothing else. "Do you mind if I feel- on the outside only?" Silvaria held her corner right above his midsection. At Zero Two's affronted look, she added, "Without a scan, it's the only way I can tell if you have any internal injuries."

"Nngh. . . all right." Zero Two squeezed his eye shut in humiliation as Silvaria pressed the corner, now solid, to his belly and pushed gently.

"Is there any pain here?"

"No!"

She moved the corner around, pressing here and there. There really wasn't any pain, and he answered all of her questions in the negative. Finally Silvaria moved back, looking satisfied.

"Very good. So far there are no signs that you have any life-threatening injuries." She drifted around the pile of bedding, towards Zero Two's halo.

"Your antenna here is perfectly intact- that's good. Now, there's just this wound on your head-"

"_Don't touch that!_" Zero Two roared. He tried to contract his body away from her, but the pain in his wings and tail flared, and his indignant cry turned to a shriek of pain.

"Shh, stay still!" Silvaria said. "Calm down, I won't take the bandage off if you don't want." She leaned over to look down into his eye, her own eyes upside down to his view. "But what happened? From the amount of blood, it looks like you had a serious wound here."

"It's just an old scar!" Zero Two narrowed his eye at her. "It's not a wound from _this_ battle."

"All right, all right. I'll leave it alone." Silvaria sighed and moved back to his side. "Well, let me tell you what I'll need to do to tend your other wounds. My energy can encourage new cell growth, so if I pass some through an injured place, it will speed up your healing. For instance, the fractures in your tail will knit within about twenty standard minutes. Unfortunately, you will still be sore for a few days- but otherwise, you could take months to heal."

Zero Two again felt the debilitating jealousy- not at Silvaria's appearance, this time, but at her abilities. Why did he only possess the power to destroy when others could heal?

"That is quite impressive," he finally said. But then something else occurred to him, something he hadn't thought of at first through the haze of pain: "Why would you do this for me, though? What do you and that Waverly expect in return?"

Silvaria's eyes looked surprised. "Nothing. . . well, except that you'll leave Kythica, our world, when you're healed. We prefer to exist in isolation, and Waverly's job as patrol is to stop any malevolent beings from reaching us. There are many in this universe who strive to gain our power, you see. But we don't want anyone to suffer needlessly, so we also tend to any wounded innocents who find their way to Kythica."

"I am not an innocent." Zero Two was affronted at being thought harmless. . . although at the moment, it was the truth.

"Well, you're also not after our power, obviously." Silvaria smiled again with her eyes. "In cases like yours, we try to remain neutral: we don't care what you've done as long as you behave civilly while you're here. Now, will you allow me to treat you?"

"Fine. Go ahead." Zero Two closed his eye to avoid having to watch, but he was still suspicious. No one had ever done anything nice for him before as far as he knew, and he couldn't believe that strangers would help him for no reason.

"Oh," Silvaria added, "to keep you from feeling any discomfort, I'm going to put you under for a few minutes."

"_What?_" Zero Two's eye flew open again, and despite his pain, he tried to lift himself with his wings. "Don't you _dare_! I-"

"Don't worry, you won't feel a thing!" chirped the tesseract. She passed in front of Zero Two's vision, and he felt a wave of energy coming off of her ethereal body. It was warm, like Waverly's insides, and this time Zero Two imagined he smelled lavender. He also felt very, very sleepy.

He tried to protest, but he no longer had the energy to make even his small mouth open. He collapsed on his back in the bedding again, and his eye dropped closed. A terrible fear engulfed Zero Two, but it couldn't keep him from falling unconscious once more.

"Finally!" Silvaria said to herself when Zero Two passed out. "What a difficult patient. . . ." She looked the winged eyeball up and down. He was definitely out cold- time to see what was under that bandage!

_That's no scarred wound- the blood on his bandage is fresh._ Silvaria moved back to the top of Zero Two's head and carefully reached a tendril of energy, solid like her cube body, under his halo to grasp the edge of the bandage. She began to peel the bandage off, shimmering with excitement. Although she had never shared the fact with any of the other tesseracts, Silvaria was fascinated with the various wounds and maladies suffered by organic beings. As a member of a flesh-less species which was virtually invulnerable, Silvaria had never experienced an injury herself. That made her all the more interested, and she kept detailed records of all the strange wounds she had seen over the years.

_But I've never come across a species like this before!_ she thought as the bandage came loose. _I wonder what he's hiding-_

"Oh my _El_!" she shrieked, interrupting her own thoughts, once she saw what lay under the bandage. The bloodied strip of fabric fell to the floor as Silvaria gaped at Zero Two's head, her violet eyes widening. She then turned to zip out of the room, catching a corner on the edge of her door and nearly tripping over herself.

Once outside, Silvaria pelted across the open area of the settlement, heading for the large building in the center. Unlike the tesseracts' houses, it had no cabochons on its two large doors; anyone was free to enter. However, as Silvaria went in- passing straight through the doors instead of taking the time to open them- there were only five tesseracts inside. Four were very large, but the fifth was her neighbor Abdiel, small and red. He was the only one who noted Silvaria's arrival; the others were too preoccupied.

These four sat in a circle in the middle of the building's single room, built like a stadium with rows of graduated stone benches rising on all sides. Abdiel sat apart from them on one bench about halfway up, where he had been watching the proceedings.

Silvaria hesitated just inside the door. She had been taught since she was a very young tesserling not to interrupt the elders when they were meditating. Still, these were special circumstances. . . and the elder she needed wasn't particularly orthodox. She picked him out easily: the largest of the four, with an outer cube a silvery grey much lighter than her own. His eyes were silver as well, with only glimpses of his mauve inner cube providing any hint of color.

Finally, Silvaria compromised by floating up and over to where Abdiel sat. She hissed in a whisper, "Abdiel! Can you go get Kyrie for me?"

Abdiel's golden eyes gleamed at her. "What's up? You look excited! Is it that new creature Waverly found? Is he okay?" he whispered back.

"I'll tell you about him later!" Silvaria was normally a patient tesseract, but she was too anxious to answer questions just then. "Just get Kyrie!"

"But he looks busy. . . ." Abdiel's gaze turned admiringly to the large, silver tesseract. "You're more important than I am. He might be mad if I disturb him."

Silvaria rolled her eyes. "You know he won't get mad at _you_." Abdiel's already red face gleamed brighter in a blush, and Silvaria persisted, "Please? I'll- I'll let you be the first to meet Zero Two when he wakes up!"

"The big eyeball?" Abdiel appeared torn, then he blinked in assent. "All right, I'll get Kyrie." The little tesseract edged forward and sank down to the level of the floor before drifting close to Kyrie. Abdiel paused and looked up at Silvaria, then he finally drew up beside Kyrie. They made an odd pair, as Kyrie was at least four times as large as the tesserling. Silvaria saw Abdiel put out an energy tendril to touch the silver tesseract's side, and Kyrie turned to look down at him.

A moment later, the two moved back to where Silvaria waited. She studied Kyrie's large face, and to her relief, he didn't seem angry. To be honest, she had never seen Kyrie show much emotion at all, but with the elders, one never knew quite what to expect.

"Outside," Kyrie directed. Silvaria and Abdiel followed him out into the dusty open courtyard, then he turned to them. "Well?"

"It's Zero Two!" Silvaria cried. "I mean- well, Waverly found another hurt creature. His name is Zero Two." She interrupted herself again. "Um, Abdiel, why don't you go back inside?"

"Aww. . . ." Abdiel's light dimmed a little.

"Let the little one stay," Kyrie said. He gave no reason why the young tesseract should be allowed to hear the gory details, but then, Kyrie rarely gave reasons at all. Abdiel glimmered with pride, and Silvaria went on.

"Anyway, I was about to treat Zero Two's injuries, but one of them- you need to see it, Kyrie. I've never seen anything like it- and maybe, with your knowledge, you can tell me just what- what this Zero Two _is_."

"Mmn." Kyrie blinked. "All right. Take me to him."

Silvaria led the two others to her dwelling and into the back room. "Abdiel, stay by the door," she ordered, praying Kyrie wouldn't interfere. Hearing about bizarre wounds was one thing, but seeing what Zero Two had hidden was another. This time, though, Abdiel didn't protest; he seemed content to view Zero Two's prone, bloody body from a distance.

"Here, it's on top of his head," Silvaria told Kyrie. She moved to float beside Zero Two's halo and waited for Kyrie to join her. His silver eyes fell coolly upon the eye creature's open wound.

"What do you find unusual?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Silvaria gave him an incredulous look. "It's an _eye socket._"

"Yes. . . many organics do have them."

"Kyrie!" Elder or not, he could be annoyingly obtuse. "It's an eye socket _on the top of his head._ And he already has an eye!"

"And many organics have more than-"

"-more than one eye, I _know_. But not on the tops of their heads!" She pointed with a corner at the raw, empty socket set in the top of Zero Two's skull. The flesh inside was a mottled white and pink with a few small, red veins scattered over it. The tear duct was still intact, and blood had oozed from it and dried around the socket's periphery. Fibers of organic matter drooped lifelessly into the hollow

"Look at the optic nerve and the muscles," Silvaria went on, indicating the fibers. "He did have an eye here- and it was _ripped out_, not medically extracted. Zero Two didn't want me to see it, either. . . . He had a bandage covering it, but he told me there was just an old scar underneath." She looked down at the damaged socket, puzzled. "What kind of creature is he- and what could have done this to him?"

Kyrie didn't answer, but Abdiel's red looked decidedly washed out. "That. . . that must have really hurt," the tesserling said.

"Kyrie, I thought you should see it, since you know so much about other species," Silvaria said. "Maybe you have seen something like-"

"I haven't seen his exact species before," Kyrie interrupted. "But I believe I can find the answers to your questions."

Silvaria glanced at him, then looked back at the gaping wound in Zero Two's head. "You aren't going to ask _him_ about it. . . ?"

"No." Kyrie turned away from Zero Two's head and gazed down at one of his wings. "The mechanical comet has returned to our skies. I will ask him, because I believe he must have brought this creature to us."

"Mechanical comet?" Abdiel's eyes widened.

Kyrie glimmered at him in what Silvaria thought might be a smile. "Yes. He has visited us before, but not since your time, little one."

"I remember the last time," Silvaria murmured. "I was a young tesserling then, but. . . I remember seeing him. He was a giant golden disk in the sky, like a second sun. Kyrie, he's here now?"

"Yes. I have not seen him, but I can sense his energy- I've felt nothing like it since he was last here." Kyrie turned suddenly to face Silvaria again. "I will go speak to the comet about our guest. Until I return. . . I think it would be better if you kept him unconscious."

Silvaria stared at him. "Do you think he's. . . dangerous?"

"I don't know, but I don't want him capable of causing harm until I _do._" Kyrie floated over to the door and added, "Go ahead and treat him, Silvaria. I'll be back soon. Come, Abdiel, leave her to work." Abdiel bobbed in the air and followed Kyrie outside, but he cast a nervous look back at Zero Two before he left.

"Hm." Silvaria sighed and studied the empty eye socket underneath the incongruous, gleaming halo. "So how do I treat _this_?"

* * *

"Kyrie. . . can I go with you to talk to the comet?" Abdiel asked outside Silvaria's house.

"No." Kyrie looked thoughtfully at the elders' building, then at Abdiel. "Until I know just what is going on, I want you to be cautious."

"But. . . ." Kyrie knew Abdiel must really be curious; the younger tesseract so rarely contradicted him. "Aren't we invulnerable? What could happen to me?"

"We are invulnerable to physical injury, but there are still ways we can be hurt." At Abdiel's worried look, Kyrie glimmered softly. "I highly doubt the comet or the eyeball wishes us evil, but I must be sure."

"All right. Will. . . will you tell me about the comet when you come back?" Abdiel asked.

"Of course." Kyrie was normally immune to the emotions of the other tesseracts, but he did not want Abdiel to be unhappy. "I will have no harm come to you, little one," he told the tesserling, drifting a little closer to him. "That's why you must stay here."

"Kyrie. . . ." Abdiel's red glow grew deeper. "I'll stay. Just. . . come back soon, all right?"

Kyrie nodded, bobbing in the air. The mechanical comet was not visible in the sky above them, but Kyrie could easily sense his energy. The tesseract closed his eyes and concentrated on the unique energy pattern. He locked on to it and tessered, instantly moving from his current location in three-dimensional space to where the comet orbited Kythica.

To Abdiel, it looked as if Kyrie simply disappeared. The young tesseract sighed and looked at the empty spot longingly, then he drifted back to the elders' building to watch the others meditate.


	4. Chapter 4

NOVA's drowsy meditation was interrupted when Kyrie appeared directly in front of him. The mechanical comet dwarfed the tesseract, but NOVA could feel energy more powerful than his own- though of a far different type- emanating from the silvery creature before him. NOVA opened his good eye wide and looked down at the tesseract.

"Greetings, NOVA," the shining cube said, bobbing in the air before NOVA. He was familiar to the comet, and NOVA scanned his own memory. Yes, he had met this one before. . . .

"Kyrie." NOVA blinked his eye respectfully.

Kyrie didn't waste any more time on formalities. "I assume that your reappearance in our sky is related to the strange being we've found on the surface."

"Ah. . . Zero Two, yes." NOVA felt a creeping pulse of nervousness moving through his circuits. "Is there a problem? Has he given you trouble?"

"No. But I wish to assure that he _won't_ give us trouble." Kyrie's silver eyes focused on NOVA's much larger one without wavering. "An. . . anomaly in his anatomy has worried our healer, and I want to know just who and what this creature is."

NOVA's nervousness turned into outright worry. "Ah. . . of course. It is your right." He closed his eye in thought, then he opened it upon Kyrie again. "I do not know the details, but it seems that he has an emotional disability, leaving him unable to feel positive emotions. He also has heightened powers of the psyche, perhaps to recompense for his lost emotional senses. These powers gave him the ability to gather cosmic dark energy to form sentient beings he called Dark Matter."

"Hm." Kyrie shifted the shape of his eyes, seeming to squint at NOVA. "And? What happened to cause the injuries you apparently wish us to treat?"

NOVA spun his gears in a sigh; he had hoped that Kyrie wouldn't ask that. "Zero Two. . . he has tried three times to conquer portions of our universe- specifically a solar system in the Gamble Galaxy." Kyrie's eyes moved into an unmistakably deadpan look, and NOVA hurried to explain further. "He wanted others to know the sorrow and misery he felt, and he sent his Dark Matter to capture energy sources from various planets. When the Dark Matter failed on its own, Zero Two stepped in twice- but both times he was stopped by a young star warrior." NOVA half-closed his eye, looking away from Kyrie. "It was that star warrior who injured Zero Two so gravely."

"A young star warrior?" Kyrie repeated. "I can understand that a star warrior might cause some of his wounds. . . but the anomalous one was particularly disturbing."

His curiosity piqued, NOVA asked, "What wound was this? I did not examine him closely."

"It was on top of his head." Kyrie looked up at NOVA with suspicion. "It appeared to be a second eye socket, from which the eyeball had been torn. I cannot imagine a star warrior inflicting such a cruel injury."

"Oh. . . ." NOVA had to search his memory a moment; he had forgotten about that particular incident. "No, the star warrior did not cause that wound. During their first battle, Zero- he was called Zero then- tore out his own eye and left it with the star warrior while he escaped. Some have speculated that it was a decoy maneuver."

"I see. And Zero Two was able to generate a second eye and socket? That is impressive. . . but done only so that he could live on and attack again. You sympathize with a creature who fought to take the happiness from an entire system?" Kyrie shook himself from side to side in disbelief.

The comet hesitated, but it was true. "Kyrie. . . one of his Dark Matter came to me and made a wish: that Zero Two would survive and be able to feel the emotions he had been denied. He wished that Zero Two would experience love."

"Our healer is skilled, but only in physical grievances," Kyrie said. "I do not think even she can teach that being how to _love_."

"I do not expect her to." NOVA looked at the tesseract again. Despite the comet's fear that Kyrie would throw Zero Two out, he was beginning to grow irritated at the tesseract's attitude. "The wish is for me to grant. I only ask your aid in healing Zero Two's physical wounds. But Kyrie. . . is it so impossible for one of El's creatures- even him- to learn to feel love?" The tesseract gave a hard glitter that translated to "harrumph," and NOVA pressed on. "_You_, even you, are able to love- aren't you?"

Kyrie's silver eyes widened then narrowed again in an affronted glare. Still, there was a thoughtfulness in his expression as he replied tersely. "Yes."

"Then please, allow Zero Two to heal," NOVA said. "I will take full responsibility for any problems he causes- but I believe that a whole village of tesseracts will be able to control him. Is it not El's teaching that El's creatures should forgive one another, that they might be forgiven in turn? I believe that if Zero Two _is_ forgiven and shown love, he will learn to love in return."

Kyrie sighed, sparkling. "I cannot deny that El teaches forgiveness. . . and love. All right, NOVA. I will allow our healer to finish her treatment. When Zero Two is well enough, I will bring him to you myself- and I trust that you will take him away from here promptly."

"Yes." NOVA's circuits whirred in relief. "Thank you, Kyrie."

"Hmn. You're welcome." The tesseract did not look wholly convinced, but he tessered back to Kythica's surface without further argument. NOVA looked down at the planet beneath him, wondering how Zero Two was doing. Was he still in pain? Did the tesseracts have him imprisoned somehow? He knew that they were not a cruel race- but they _were_ a cautious and solitary one.

_If they will only heal him quickly,_ the comet thought. _Then I will be able to keep him safe. . . ._

* * *

Left alone with the unconscious Zero Two, Silvaria decided to begin with the easiest part to heal: his remaining eye. Silvaria gently lifted the lid and gazed down at the unseeing orb, then she dipped one corner into it in the same manner she had scanned his tail and wings. Her energy accelerated the growth of the cells in his sclera and cornea, and her keen eyes saw the minute scratches begin to heal. In about five minutes, the eye would be whole again.

Zero Two's wings too were easy to treat, as they hadn't been broken; Silvaria had only to heal some contusions and a few abrasions. Those too would be well in a short time, perhaps an hour. His feathers though. . . .

_Those will take time to grow back,_ she thought. Using her energy, Silvaria stimulated the stripped follicles where the eye creature's feathers had been ripped out in clumps. Even with her help, it would be at least a standard month before Zero Two's wings were full again. She wondered how he would move about without being able to fly- he certainly was lacking in the department of ambulatory limbs- but she had done all she could.

The tesseract healer was about to start work on Zero Two's tail when a firm rap sounded the outer door to her dwelling. Silvaria hurried to the door, sighing at the interruption until she opened it and saw that Kyrie had returned.

"Oh, it's you, Kyrie. What did the comet say?" Silvaria noticed that Abdiel was peeking around Kyrie's broad side, and she wondered if Kyrie had actually taken the tesserling out into space with him.

Kyrie's voice was grimmer than usual, but he had no bad news. "You may finish treating the creature. However, come get me before you awaken him. I want to be there when he regains consciousness."

"He's going to be sore, even after the healing," Silvaria admitted. "I think it would be best that I keep him under overnight, so he will rest. It won't harm him, and it will give me time to find some nourishment for him. I'm not sure what his kind would eat-"

"I'll handle that," Kyrie interrupted. "Do not feed him anything."

"Um. . . okay." Not for the first time, Silvaria wished Kyrie weren't so cryptic; however, she trusted him. "I'll come get you in the morning, and you can take it from there. But. . . what about the second eye socket? Did the comet explain _that_?"

"Yes. . . as much as it can be explained, I suppose." He paused. "The creature had an eye there once, but he. . . removed it himself."

"He _what_?" Silvaria gaped. Abdiel stared up at Kyrie, indicating that he hadn't been there to hear the comet's explanation after all.

"Zero Two removed it as a decoy in a battle, then he grew a second one to replace it." Kyrie tilted one corner up in a sort of shrug. "At any rate, it should not interfere with the creature's treatment."

He started to turn away, and Silvaria stammered, "But. . . but what do I do with it? I can't grow him another _eye_."

Kyrie sparkled at her. "It's your decision- you're the healer."

After Kyrie and Abdiel left, Silvaria set about treating Zero Two's broken tail. She bound its base to a splint to be sure the bones were aligned, then she passed over it with her energy. The fractures would knit, but unlike Zero Two's other wounds, they would take all night to finish healing. Silvaria treated his tail's abrasions, then she started to wash the dried blood off the eyeball creature's body as she thought.

_What do I do about his head?_ she wondered while she carefully wiped away the blood around Zero Two's good eye. When she had finished cleaning his body, Silvaria moved to the wound under his halo and started to clean it out as best she could. The blood was easy enough to remove, but she hesitated over the torn optic nerve and strands of muscle.

"I guess you won't really need these anymore. . . . ." Silvaria had always hated using her skills to destroy cells rather than rebuild them, but she had no choice. Brushing a corner of her cube over the optic nerve, Silvaria watched as the cells from its base upward began to wither and die. Within a moment, the fiber had turned brittle and brown, and it crumbled to dust when Silvaria moved to sweep it away.

She extracted the ripped muscle fibers the same way then destroyed the working tear duct as well; it wouldn't do to have it continue to leak blood into the socket. Now there was just the matter of filling in the socket itself. Simply encouraging the socket's ragged eyelids to grow over it would result in a deformity, a pit lined with skin and the fine, silky feathers that covered Zero Two's body. Instead, Silvaria opted to fill the socket with scar tissue first. It would be lumpy and dense, but she decided Zero Two would prefer it to a dent in his head.

Silvaria moved forward onto the top of Zero Two's head, enveloping the socket completely. Closing her eyes, she concentrated all her energy on developing the new tissue from the mottled flesh in the socket. It was a long, arduous process, and Silvaria felt drained when the white tissue had finally filled the socket. She carefully closed Zero Two's eyelid over the tissue and held it shut until the new cell growth had knitted it together.

_Once the rest of those fine feathers grow back in, the wound will be almost invisible._ Silvaria moved back from Zero Two and looked him over with tired satisfaction.

"Well, I've done my best for you," she said to the unconscious Zero Two. She fluffed up his bedding then settled down beside him. A glance out a small window told her that darkness had fallen. Silvaria normally had a meal of energy in the evening, but she hated to leave Zero Two unattended for even the short time it would take her to feed. As was her habit, she started talking to her patient, even though he couldn't hear her.

"If you don't get to eat, then neither will I. What _do_ you eat anyway- solid food? Energy?" Silvaria flickered softly in a yawn. "I get my energy from plants. . . growing things. That's how I. . . I can regrow your cells. . . ." The exhausted tesseract broke off as she drifted into sleep, and Zero Two lay silent, healing.


	5. Chapter 5

Zero Two awoke to the sound of soft talking nearby. It wasn't the voices that had wakened him; it was the feeling of pain returning to his battered body. For a moment, he couldn't focus on what the voices were saying. Instead, the ache in his wings and the base of his tail commanded his full attention. But then, slowly, the conversation filtered in.

"Why didn't you want me to feed him?" Zero Two recognized the voice as Silvaria's- but to whom was she talking?

"The mechanical comet described this creature's nature to me: he can feel no positive emotions, and he attacked his home galaxy hoping to leave it to the same fate. We cannot give him any energy on the chance that he would use it against us." The answering voice was flat and not one Zero Two had heard before, but he was more concerned about what had been said. _Who is this mechanical comet. . . and how does it know so much about me?_

"Oh. . . ." Silvaria asked, "Do you think it's all right for him to be here? And for us to help him?"

"NOVA has asked us to give him a chance. He rightly pointed out that we could control Zero Two if needed."

What feathers Zero Two still had bristled in fury, and he could no longer listen silently to the discussion of himself. He forced his wings to work, raising himself upon them as he opened his eye. He still lay in the room where Silvaria had examined him, but another tesseract was there with Silvaria, presumably the owner of the mysterious voice. It was much larger than her, and it glimmered with a dark silver light.

"Who is NOVA?" Zero Two demanded. "A mechanical comet?"

Silvaria and the larger tesseract both shifted, Silvaria's violet eyes widening a little. It was the other who answered.

"Yes. He brought you here so that we could treat your injuries."

Zero Two knew there were clockwork stars, but he hadn't thought they would be sentient. . . or that one would concern itself with him.

"Why?" He turned his red eye on the larger tesseract, who seemed to be the one in charge. "Why would he take such trouble on my account?"

The tesseract's silver eyes flattened slightly. "Frankly, I wonder that myself. You'll have to ask NOVA when I return you to him."

"Return me to him?" Zero Two's wings trembled in anger; they gave way under his weight, and he collapsed in his makeshift bed. Undeterred, he went on, "This comet tells you to control me and expects to have me- handed over to him?"

When the rude silver tesseract did not reply, Silvaria said, "I don't think he wants you under his power, Zero Two. It's just that we have our own safety to consider. If you tried to attack us, we'd have to defend ourselves."

Zero Two had the uneasy feeling that he wouldn't be capable of attacking anyone for some time, but the tesseracts didn't have to know that. "I do not want to be 'returned' to the comet. I promise I will not attack you if you agree to set me free instead."

"You don't have much choice in the matter," announced the larger tesseract. "I swore to NOVA that I would bring you to him as soon as you were well enough to travel."

"No!" growled Zero Two. "I refuse!" He tried again to lift himself on his wings, but they were too weak to hold his weight.

"Silence!" The large tesseract glinted with a sharp light that hurt Zero Two's eye. "You will do as Silvaria tells you until you can be moved. After that, you can take up your complaints with NOVA." The tesseract floated out of the room without giving Zero Two a chance to reply.

"Zero Two, please calm yourself," Silvaria said as the eyeball fluttered his wings in helpless anger. "You'll cause yourself more pain if you remain agitated." Zero Two complied only because he was too weak struggle any longer.

Silvaria moved to hover close to Zero Two's bedding. "You don't have to worry. The mechanical comet is very concerned for your health. He only wants to care for you, not to control you in any way."

Zero Two turned his eye away from her. "How do you know that?"

"He spoke to Kyrie- the large, dark tesseract you saw. Kyrie is one of our elders, the leaders of our settlement." Silvaria began to drift around Zero Two, examining him visually. "But before you go back to NOVA, I have to be sure your injuries are healing. How do you feel?"

"I hurt."

"Where?" Silvaria persisted.

Zero Two closed his eye and almost said, "Everywhere". . . but then he realized that it wasn't true. His wings and his tail still ached, but his eye no longer burned, and the persistent ache from the top of his head had ceased.

"My wings and tail," Zero Two replied instead.

Silvaria looked at Zero Two's spiny tail, then she dipped a corner through its base without even asking first. "The fractures have knitted here, but it will take some more time for your tail to fully heal. I have it splinted right now to protect it. When I remove the splint, though, you should be able to move it just fine. Your wings will also start feeling better with time, but you will have to slowly build up strength in them again. And your feathers will have to grow back before you can fly."

Zero Two looked down at his right wing, and his always negative emotions sunk even lower. The mangled feathers looked ugly- but nothing was worse than being unable to fly.

_I couldn't go anywhere even if they did set me free,_ the eyeball realized. _I'm helpless. . . ._

Now that his anger towards NOVA and Kyrie had subsided, Zero Two's usual miasma of despair sank over him. He lowered his eyelid as tears of blood welled up in the corners of his eye.

"Now, it's not so bad. You don't have to cry!" Zero Two opened his eye to glare at the tesseract only to find her staring at him with an excited glimmer. "Although. . . your physiology is just fascinating. I've never met a creature before who cried _blood!_ And from both sockets, no less. . . ."

"Both- what?" A fresh wave of anger crashed over Zero Two as he felt the top of his head, under his halo, with both stubby wings. No bandage there- no wound. _That's why it doesn't hurt anymore!_

_"I told you to leave it alone!"_ Zero Two roared. "And you said you would. You lied to me!"

"Zero Two, I- I had to do something! It was hurting you." But the look in her violet eyes was guilty.

"You could _all_ be lying to me!" cried Zero Two as another tear spilled from his remaining eye and soaked into his bedding. "I can't trust any of you!"

Still Silvaria kept explaining. "But I fixed it, well, almost! It won't bleed or hurt anymore, and-"

"Leave me alone!" Zero Two pressed his eye closed, squeezing out streams of blood. "Go away! _Leave me alone!_"

"All right, I'll go. Just please, calm down! We want you to get well. That's _all_."

Zero Two knew Silvaria was gone when the room fell blessedly silent. He opened his eye and peered through a red blur of tears, making sure he was alone, then he turned his face down against the crumpled and stained bedding. Zero Two drew his wings in close to his body, but they offered little sense of protection in their damaged state. The eyeball felt vulnerable and exposed with his tail extracted and with no feathers to shield his body.

Worse than that, he felt out of control. When he lost his first eye, it had been deliberate: Zero had left it behind and drifted blind and bleeding in space- but it had been his choice. Now even that scar had been healed against his will, and Zero Two found himself no longer master of his own destiny.

* * *

Zero Two slept again. When he awakened, he was no longer alone: a reddish glow lit his bedding and his smooth white sides. Zero Two shifted and opened his eye upon the tesserling, Abdiel.

"What do you want?" Zero Two rasped as he glared at the tesseract. Unlike with Kyrie, he didn't have to squint this time; the red light was almost soothing to him. It reminded him of Dark Star.

"I told Silvaria I would sit with you." Abdiel leaned a little closer; he seemed to be studying Zero Two's eye. "I cleaned you up- you had blood all over you."

"Mmn." Zero Two looked down at himself; the blood from his latest bout of tears had been cleaned from his white feathers.

"Does anything hurt?" asked Abdiel as he continued to stare at Zero Two.

"Yes. And I'm hungry." Zero Two hadn't realized just how hungry he was until that moment. _That explains why my wings are so weak. . . . I haven't had fresh energy since- since before-_ He shut his thoughts off, not wanting to remember his battle with the star warrior.

"I'm sorry. Kyrie said we can't feed you," Abdiel apologized.

Zero Two cut his eye at the tesseract. "Why?" He remembered what Kyrie had told Silvaria, and he wondered if the whole settlement knew his story.

"Kyrie wouldn't tell me." Abdiel's own red eyes showed disappointment, which irritated Zero Two. _Why are he and Silvaria are so curious about me?_

"It isn't any of your business, anyway," grumbled Zero Two, drawing his ragged wings closer about him. "I can feed myself." _If I can just find some negative energy here. . . ._

"But Kyrie tells me everything. . . ." The little tesseract gave an audible sigh, and for the first time, Zero Two felt a change in the energy of a tesseract. Until that point, all of the tesseracts' energy had felt bright and positive- even Waverly's and Kyrie's. But now, Abdiel gave off a hint of sadness.

_Hmm._ Zero Two peered out from between two clumps of feathers. _Maybe their energy is edible after all. . . ._

"Perhaps he doesn't trust you," the eyeball murmured into his feathers.

Abdiel gave him a stricken look. "He's always trusted me before."

"_I've_ never been here before." Zero Two let his wing drop to look at Abdiel full on. "He fears I'll cause trouble. . . and maybe he thinks you'll take my side if you know too much about me."

"I don't think you'll cause any trouble." Abdiel's eyes darted over Zero Two's face; the young tesseract seemed caught between being polite to Zero Two and contradicting him. "But. . . but I wouldn't take anybody's side against. . . him."

For an instant, as quickly as he could close and open his eye, Zero Two remembered how it felt to be turned upon. One of the very first Dark Matter created had left him- had in fact befriended and aided the pink star warrior who later attacked Zero Two twice. A few others had betrayed him over time, but he only remembered one other clearly: a very small Dark Matter who abandoned Zero Two because he fell in love with a Kracko.

Another bloody tear eased itself from Zero Two's eye, and he began to believe that Abdiel really would be unfaithful to his mentor.

"Kyrie is too wise to believe that," Zero Two said. "I've known young creatures like you- someone else will come along, and you _will_ turn on him."

"No, I wouldn't!" Abdiel protested. The ambient red glow from his body had dimmed somewhat, and the energy Zero Two felt from him now was considerably darker. "Kyrie is. . . I would never choose anyone over him."

"You say that _now_." Between his painful memories and Abdiel's protests, Zero Two felt his anger growing, and he wanted to hurt Abdiel. . . but not just to get the tesseract's energy. Zero Two also wanted someone to suffer with him.

"I'm no fonder of Kyrie than he is of me," the eyeball went on, "but I hope for his sake that he _doesn't_ trust you. Someday you will betray him."

"Zero Two. . . ." A tesseract like Waverly would have only gotten angry, but Abdiel was different. His light grew so dim, it nearly went out. In fact, Zero Two saw that it seemed to be leaking right out of the tesseract's body: glowing crimson embers seeped from Abdiel's corners and edges, fell to the ground, and faded from sight. "I love Kyrie! I wouldn't ever-" The tesserling broke off, unable to continue.

It took Zero Two a moment to understand: _He's weeping. . . ._

Suddenly reminded of his need for sustenance, the eyeball felt with his mind for Abdiel's energy. It had the flavor of despair, and Zero Two absorbed it hungrily. At first, it was sweet, tasting like the energy of conquered planets. But then Zero Two choked mentally; past that first taste, feeding on the tesseract's energy was like swallowing glass. As dark as the energy was, it was completely foreign to the eyeball, unpalatable like nothing he had absorbed back home in Gamble Galaxy.

"Aaggh!" Zero Two clamped his eye shut and held his wings over his head, shaking with pain and frustration. So much dark energy from that sniveling little tesseract, and he could use none of it! "Get out!" Zero Two snarled through his feathers. "Leave me be, all of you!"

Abdiel needed less coaxing than Silvaria had. He darted from the room with a trail of dying light behind him. His exit left Zero Two alone and weeping himself with frustration.


End file.
